Morrisville troubles draw concern from community
NORWICH – The former campaign manager who successfully raised $1 million to build the Norwich branch of Morrisville State College said Monday he was extremely disappointed to learn that the educational institution might be in trouble.
The fact that enrollment is down by 100 students and the dean has been directed to create community-funded curriculum over the next 30 days to attract future students isn’t sitting well with William H. Smith Jr. The retired Smith Ford dealer and New York businessman said he led a committee that tapped into trusts such as the Roger W. Follett Foundation and the Greater Norwich Foundation, and also from private individuals.
“Go look at all of the names on the walls and on the classrooms down there. We really cared about having Morrisville become part of our community; that’s why we built the building here. That the college and state are not supportive of our campus is really disappointing,” he said.
Specifically, fundraisers cumulated $250,000 from the Follett Foundation, $100,000 for the college’s lobby and $25,000 for a classroom in memory of Agatino J. Natoli from the Greater Norwich Foundation, and $25,000 from retired Norwich businessman Jim Dunne in memory of his father. Dunne has served on the Morrisville College Council for the past 10 years.
There were just 360 students on the attendance roster this semester, compared to 460 last year. The county had projected an enrollment of 1,000 when the Norwich campus opened its doors back in 2006.
The college’s Officer in Charge, Dr. B. Wolfe Yeigh, has directed Campus Dean Marsha Cornelius to look at providing college credit courses to Norwich High School students and to engage business leaders to use the campus for their licensing or training programs. She has been asked to report back in April. Cornelius has said she is confident about Morrisville’s future in Norwich.
Yeigh is in charge of both SUNY Morrisville and SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica. He was appointed last summer to assume the responsibilities held by former Morrisville State College Dean Raymond Cross, who stepped down Dec. 31, 2010 after 13 years. Members of Smith’s campaign committee asked whether it’s possible for one officer to be in charge of two campuses. Some have said Yeigh’s primary concern is SUNY IT, instead of Morrisville, since he held that post first.
Dunne pointed out that the college recently stopped requesting scholarship funding. “For many years, the Greater Norwich Foundation provided $10,000 to the college for scholarships for Norwich students, but the college stopped requesting it a couple of years ago,” he said.
Commerce Chenango President Steve Craig, who attended a meeting with Yeigh, pointed out that enrollment is indeed declining at state universities across New York because of the rising cost of tuition and fewer traditional-aged students going to college. Though it varies by campus, New York State universities have lost approximately 30 to 35 percent of their annual operating budgets over the past few years.
“It’s a function of demographics; you just don’t have the bodies anymore,” he said, suggesting that the Norwich branch might consider reaching out to adult students instead.
“There are two ways to look at this,” Craig said, regarding Yeigh’s directive. “He could have come to town and said everything’s great. At least he didn’t just paint a rosey picture. Is that bad news or the impetus we need to sustain it?”
Many county supervisors are alarmed about the future of the Norwich branch campus. Town of New Berlin Supervisor Ross Iannello said the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee three years ago attempted to encourage the college to develop curriculum that would train workers for the future natural gas industry.
“We put together an advisory committee, and it went nowhere. There’s a tremendous market for retraining people to fit these natural gas-related businesses in many areas,” said Iannello.
“It was a missed opportunity,” the committee’s chairman, Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, said.
Looking back ...
Morrisville State College officials and Chenango County lawmakers made the decision to build at The Eaton Center site on Conkey Avenue back in 2004. Before returning to home-base in Cincinnati, Ohio, Procter and Gamble had donated the land to the county, which in turn, donated it to SUNY Morrisville.
The college had actually operated as an extension in Norwich since 1970, using various classroom spaces, and, later, from classrooms in buildings that were partially constructed for them on Broad Street in downtown Norwich. The former Morrisville State College on Broad Street, now vacant, was never completed, however, despite an eminent domain order to The Benedict Corporation to vacate its former center city automobile dealership to make way for the college and a city parking lot.
Lawmakers agreed to spend $200,000 in taxpayer dollars to help build the facility. The county’s intent was to cut back on the growing obligation to pay for students to attend community colleges outside the county. That amount has grown from $800,000 in 2005 to nearly $1 million today.
Encouraging high school seniors to attend Morrisville in Norwich while tuition rates for an education at community colleges outside the county are lower has always challenged recruiters. New York’s community colleges have varied negotiated rates for full-time equivalent students, but all are subsidized - in equal thirds - by the enrolled student, by the county where that student resides and by the state.
Declining enrollment was actually a concern before classes began at the new campus. In 2007, it became apparent that the number of non-traditional students in Chenango County taking classes was saturated. Enrollment trends identified a younger, commuter student demographic than in the past. Later, supervisors complained to then-Dean Ted Nichols that enrollment declined when the college dropped its full-time recruiter. City of Norwich James J. McNeil said he believed local taxes paid to support the school were specifically for a dedicated person to do the recruiting. Nichols disagreed, however, saying he had researched the original contract agreement between the college and Chenango County and found no direct reference to hiring a specific employee.
“It was related to marketing tools,” he told the committee in 2007. As it has in the past, the county’s 2012 budget contains about $40,000 for a college recruiter.
The college offers associate’s degrees in liberal arts and transfer credits in accounting, business administration, computer information systems, criminal justice, nursing and public safety.
The fact that enrollment is down by 100 students and the dean has been directed to create community-funded curriculum over the next 30 days to attract future students isn’t sitting well with William H. Smith Jr. The retired Smith Ford dealer and New York businessman said he led a committee that tapped into trusts such as the Roger W. Follett Foundation and the Greater Norwich Foundation, and also from private individuals.
“Go look at all of the names on the walls and on the classrooms down there. We really cared about having Morrisville become part of our community; that’s why we built the building here. That the college and state are not supportive of our campus is really disappointing,” he said.
Specifically, fundraisers cumulated $250,000 from the Follett Foundation, $100,000 for the college’s lobby and $25,000 for a classroom in memory of Agatino J. Natoli from the Greater Norwich Foundation, and $25,000 from retired Norwich businessman Jim Dunne in memory of his father. Dunne has served on the Morrisville College Council for the past 10 years.
There were just 360 students on the attendance roster this semester, compared to 460 last year. The county had projected an enrollment of 1,000 when the Norwich campus opened its doors back in 2006.
The college’s Officer in Charge, Dr. B. Wolfe Yeigh, has directed Campus Dean Marsha Cornelius to look at providing college credit courses to Norwich High School students and to engage business leaders to use the campus for their licensing or training programs. She has been asked to report back in April. Cornelius has said she is confident about Morrisville’s future in Norwich.
Yeigh is in charge of both SUNY Morrisville and SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica. He was appointed last summer to assume the responsibilities held by former Morrisville State College Dean Raymond Cross, who stepped down Dec. 31, 2010 after 13 years. Members of Smith’s campaign committee asked whether it’s possible for one officer to be in charge of two campuses. Some have said Yeigh’s primary concern is SUNY IT, instead of Morrisville, since he held that post first.
Dunne pointed out that the college recently stopped requesting scholarship funding. “For many years, the Greater Norwich Foundation provided $10,000 to the college for scholarships for Norwich students, but the college stopped requesting it a couple of years ago,” he said.
Commerce Chenango President Steve Craig, who attended a meeting with Yeigh, pointed out that enrollment is indeed declining at state universities across New York because of the rising cost of tuition and fewer traditional-aged students going to college. Though it varies by campus, New York State universities have lost approximately 30 to 35 percent of their annual operating budgets over the past few years.
“It’s a function of demographics; you just don’t have the bodies anymore,” he said, suggesting that the Norwich branch might consider reaching out to adult students instead.
“There are two ways to look at this,” Craig said, regarding Yeigh’s directive. “He could have come to town and said everything’s great. At least he didn’t just paint a rosey picture. Is that bad news or the impetus we need to sustain it?”
Many county supervisors are alarmed about the future of the Norwich branch campus. Town of New Berlin Supervisor Ross Iannello said the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee three years ago attempted to encourage the college to develop curriculum that would train workers for the future natural gas industry.
“We put together an advisory committee, and it went nowhere. There’s a tremendous market for retraining people to fit these natural gas-related businesses in many areas,” said Iannello.
“It was a missed opportunity,” the committee’s chairman, Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, said.
Looking back ...
Morrisville State College officials and Chenango County lawmakers made the decision to build at The Eaton Center site on Conkey Avenue back in 2004. Before returning to home-base in Cincinnati, Ohio, Procter and Gamble had donated the land to the county, which in turn, donated it to SUNY Morrisville.
The college had actually operated as an extension in Norwich since 1970, using various classroom spaces, and, later, from classrooms in buildings that were partially constructed for them on Broad Street in downtown Norwich. The former Morrisville State College on Broad Street, now vacant, was never completed, however, despite an eminent domain order to The Benedict Corporation to vacate its former center city automobile dealership to make way for the college and a city parking lot.
Lawmakers agreed to spend $200,000 in taxpayer dollars to help build the facility. The county’s intent was to cut back on the growing obligation to pay for students to attend community colleges outside the county. That amount has grown from $800,000 in 2005 to nearly $1 million today.
Encouraging high school seniors to attend Morrisville in Norwich while tuition rates for an education at community colleges outside the county are lower has always challenged recruiters. New York’s community colleges have varied negotiated rates for full-time equivalent students, but all are subsidized - in equal thirds - by the enrolled student, by the county where that student resides and by the state.
Declining enrollment was actually a concern before classes began at the new campus. In 2007, it became apparent that the number of non-traditional students in Chenango County taking classes was saturated. Enrollment trends identified a younger, commuter student demographic than in the past. Later, supervisors complained to then-Dean Ted Nichols that enrollment declined when the college dropped its full-time recruiter. City of Norwich James J. McNeil said he believed local taxes paid to support the school were specifically for a dedicated person to do the recruiting. Nichols disagreed, however, saying he had researched the original contract agreement between the college and Chenango County and found no direct reference to hiring a specific employee.
“It was related to marketing tools,” he told the committee in 2007. As it has in the past, the county’s 2012 budget contains about $40,000 for a college recruiter.
The college offers associate’s degrees in liberal arts and transfer credits in accounting, business administration, computer information systems, criminal justice, nursing and public safety.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks